The Czech Republic is planning to further boost its police presence on the border with Austria to be able to deal with a possible influx of migrants.
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After the Czechs beefed up security on the Austrian-Czech border on September 13 in response to Germany’s decision to restore border controls, they had been mounting random controls at 14 border crossings.
Landlocked Hungary has registered over 300,000 illegal migrants crossing its borders this year, most from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, seeking refuge from poverty and war in richer European Union members to the north.
The Interior Minister announced Thursday such measures will be done on 20 crossings, starting Saturday.
Amnesty said Hungarian police also used excessive force against migrants the day after it closed the border with Serbia last month – firing tear gas and water cannon at the crowds.
At a joint news conference Friday, Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said Sweden had reached “a very dramatic stage” and had so far received more than 115,000 applications this year. As European Union ministers gather in Luxembourg today for high-level meetings to discuss the crisis, Amnesty global is calling on the European Union to hold Hungary to account for its human rights failures and to protect people on the move by creating safer, legal routes before winter hits.
“Hungary is a few razor-wire coils away from completely sealing off its borders with Croatia and Serbia”. In a clear reference to Hungary, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said over the weekend that “I hope the others too would realize that wire fences aren’t a solution” and that migrants would “eat the barbed-wire fence up”.
In the absence of essential supplies such as food and tents, refugees and asylum seekers massed at Budapest’s main train stations, Keleti, Nyugati and Deli, had to rely on support provided largely by volunteers and through donations.
On Friday, police said the number of officers on the border will be increased from 200 to 720 Saturday and will be present also along the Austrian border.
It added: “The collection of evidence in relation to this case in Austria has essentially been finished or is about to”. Still, the Interior Ministry counted over 46,000 requests for refugee status by the end of August, compared to around 28,000 for all of 2014.
Vienna would be a key prize for the Freedom Party, since the city has been governed for 60 years by the Socialists, alone or as the dominant coalition partner.
The government there has taken a controversially hard-line stance against migration amid Europe’s worst such crisis since World War II.
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President Klaus Iohannis spoke Thursday at an event to commemorate the Holocaust.
